Tuesday, April 27, 2004

Stoked.

A very dear student took it upon herself to gather information, statements and materials to support a nomination for our faculty teaching award. For me. In a sense the attempt was futile: the award is intended for those staff members who have contributed ten or more years of teaching, whilst I've only been doing my duties for two and a half years; moreover, I'm a graduate student who runs tutorials and an experiment-class unit, not a lecturer. Needless to say, I didn't get it.

Still, I'm blushing: I received an email today from the committee, saying they understand me to be
"the first postgraduate student involved in teaching to have been nominated for this award since its inception" , that they were "extremely impressed by your nomination" and that "With or without this award, you clearly are an outstanding teacher and we are very fortunate to have someone of your calibre participating in the teaching programmes in the Department of Psychology."

Blush double blush.

The nicest part of the whole thing I already got actually - I saw a copy of the nomination before it was submitted and it was amazing how nice people can be about you. I'm quite bad at receiving compliments and I kept creasing up in mawkish embarrassment when reading it. It makes you want to go around hugging people but I know that really they're not expecting anything more than a grin of gratitude. A pint or two, maybe. And a pony, but thats it.

So thanks above all to Anna for putting time and effort better spent revising into making me look good.